Year's End

Meredith Salo

Rumor has it the sun might explode ina few billion years.I fill my mouth with rumors andspit them out on the train tracks.The acidity.

There is a linkbetween the death of the sunand the good all-American familynext to me on the train planning a wholesome Christmas dinner.I don’t know what it is.I stay up all night trying to figure it out.

I have a mouth for every possibleversion of the truth but none of them are talking.I cling to their silence the wayother people cling to Christmas trees. Please, damp symbol, sing to me.

I want to get it over with.I want the octopus eating its own legs.I want the whole world turned overuntil it shakes.

No. Like this.

Meredith Salo has a B.A. from UMass Amherst. She lives in Massachusetts, where she collects feathers and tries to put things into words.